Plagiarism - Preserving Academic Integrity

1. Plagiarism - Preserving Academic Integrity

2. Before We Get Started…. • Please review The Chicago School’s policy on Academic Integrity (located on next five slides). • Take a few moments to reflect on your own personal thoughts concerning Plagiarism. • Familiarize yourself with academic support resources: • The Academic Support Center • Graduate Advisors • Center for Academic Excellence • APA Manual

3. Statement Of Academic Integrity The Chicago School expects its students to function within an environment of trust relative to other students, faculty, staff, and administration. Moreover, the school expects all students to conduct themselves ethically, with personal honesty, and with professionalism. Academic dishonesty violates one of the most basic ethical principles in an academic community and will result in sanctions imposed under the school’s disciplinary system. All suspected incidents must be immediately referred to the department chair or designee who will then refer the matter to the Student Affairs Committee for investigation, intervention, and/or imposition of sanctions. Possible interventions and sanctions may include, but are not limited to, implementing an Academic Development Plan, placing a student on academic warning/probation or dismissing a student.

4. Statement Of Academic Integrity Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to: Cheating Examples of cheating include, but are not limited to, copying another person’s work with or without her or his permission, giving or receiving aid on a test, giving or receiving test materials prior to official distribution, collaborating on assignments or exams without instructor permission, submitting another’s work as one’s own (including purchased papers), taking credit for group work to which one did not contribute significantly or meet one’s obligations, and intentionally using or attempting to use unauthorized materials, information or study aids in any academic exercise. Students may be expected to provide proof of identity prior to exams.

5. Statement Of Academic Integrity Plagiarism Plagiarism is intentionally or unintentionally representing words, ideas, or data from any source as one’s own original work. The use or reproduction of another’s work without appropriate attribution in the form of complete, accurate, and properly formatted citations constitutes plagiarism. Examples of plagiarism, include but are not limited to, copying the work of another verbatim without using quotation marks, revising the work of another by making only minor word changes without explanation, attribution, and citation, paraphrasing the work of another without the appropriate citation. Students are expected to produce original work in all papers, coursework, dissertation, and other academic projects (including case studies from internship or practicum sites) and to follow appropriate rules governing attribution that apply to the work product.

6. Statement Of Academic Integrity Carelessness, or failure to properly follow appropriate rules governing source attribution (for example, those contained in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association), can be construed to be plagiarism when multiple mistakes in formatting citations are made in the same paper. Further, a single example of failing to use quotation marks appropriately may be considered plagiarism.

7. Statement Of Academic Integrity Fabrication Fabrication is intentionally inventing information, data, or citations in any academic or clinical exercise. Examples of fabrication include, but are not limited to, falsifying research or other findings, citing sources not actually used in writing a research paper, submitting work done in previous classes as if it were new and original work, and changing, altering, or being an accessory to the changing and/or altering of any officially recorded grade. If a student is unsure if his or her conduct may represent a form of academic dishonesty, he or she should seek out consultation from a course instructor, an academic advisor, and/or the Center for Academic Excellence.

8. What Is Plagiarism? • It is more than just ‘copying’ or ‘borrowing’. • Plagiarism is an act of fraud, and presents a serious threat to academic integrity. • Plagiarism includes: • To present the ideas or words of another as one’s own. • To use data without providing a citation. • Buying a paper, or hiring someone to write a paper for you. • Selling the ideas of another for the purpose of financial gain.

9. Tips To Avoid Plagiarism • Most importantly, give credit when credit is due. • What needs to be cited: • Any information utilized from a book, newspaper, web page, movie, letter, TV program, or any other medium. • Information obtained through an interview with another person. • Information from diagrams, illustrations, charts, etc. • Audio, video, or other media which you have utilized in your document.

10. Tips To Avoid Plagiarism • What does not need to be cited? • Personal information (lived experiences, personal insights/observations, personal conclusions concerning a subject). • Results from a study you conducted. • When using your own artwork, photographs, video, audio, etc. • When you use ‘generally accepted’ facts (e.g., students who study more do better on exams). • When you use ‘Common Knowledge’ (common sense observations), but not historical data.

11. Safe Practices Clearly identify the author’s name in the same sentence when using direct quotes. When paraphrasing, use a statement which identifies the source somewhere in the text, e.g., According to Doe (2010)…. Make sure to allot yourself plenty of time to carefully proofread your document, and ensure the accuracy of presented information. Continually keep saving your document; you may want to save the file under different names (e.g., Draft 01, Draft 02, etc.). This helps protect your data from theft, and you can more effectively monitor the evolution of your ideas. Create a bibliography/reference page with appropriate citations (i.e., APA format). Last, but not least, please remember to consult with your instructor or graduate advisor should you have any concerns/questions concerning any of the aforementioned information.

12. Things To Consider • Do you need to provide a citation if you change the words? • Yes! Changing the words of an original source is not sufficient to prevent plagiarism. You are still using the original idea(s). • If you cite the source, can you still be accused of plagiarism? • Yes! If it appears you borrowed too liberally from a source, and the majority of your ideas are identified as not your own, you could be accused of plagiarism. • What are some of the legal/academic consequences? • Fines anywhere from $100 to $50,000, and up to one year in jail. • Failure of the assignment, course, or potential expulsion.

13. Final Reflections While this subject matter is anxiety provoking, with a few simple and careful steps, it should never be a problem. Please know, there are many resources available to you which will help ensure your academic/professional success. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact the course instructor or your graduate advisor. Good luck and lets work together to ensure Academic Integrity is always protected. 

14. Some Useful Resources • Plagiarism resource • Plagiarism.org at http://www.plagiarism.org/learning_center/what_is_plagiarism.html